


Chaos and Coffee

by Warrior_of_Earth



Series: Where Marinette is sleep deprived and just wants to punch people [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Smart Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Vigilante Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29436795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Warrior_of_Earth/pseuds/Warrior_of_Earth
Summary: Sleep Deprived, Genius Marinette accidentally reveals she knows the Waynes are the Batfam.... Now what?
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Where Marinette is sleep deprived and just wants to punch people [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197725
Comments: 14
Kudos: 324





	Chaos and Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [onlyganymede](https://archiveofourown.org/users/onlyganymede/gifts).



The vigilante behind her snarled. This was the third time this week he had run into  _ Animale.  _ She was an unknown, and a mischievous one at that. There were no records of her until she had entered Gotham a few weeks ago, and because she seemed to be using magic even the computer couldn’t get an accurate read on her. 

Her power set shifted seemingly randomly, and her mischievous giggle never ceased to infuriate him. 

He had never had a problem with trying to hunt down an unknown, especially by the time he began training with Batman. He had figured out  _ batman himself _ , for goodness sakes! 

Animale, for her part, found his mood at the magic hilarious. This only served to make him more enraged at times.

Red Robin was just glad that Animale went to bed at a reasonable hour, as far as he could tell, so he could get  _ some  _ sleep in before class the next day. Of course, that didn’t always mean he actually  _ got  _ sleep, as his insomnia was ever present. 

Animale, or rather Marinette, quite enjoyed the chaos that her presence brought to the bats. She was right under their noses, slipping into illusions, blending into the shadows, hiding with the sirens, anything was game to keep the bats on their toes. She had come to Gotham a year before when her guardian instincts had drawn her to the city. She had entered and the dark miasma that covered the city had made her inner creation shrink back and flinch. A week after she had settled in and layered protective charms over her apartment, she went out the first time to get an idea where in the city needed the most work. She would have to lay cleansing sigils in strategic locations throughout the city, layering illusions over them so no stray bat or rogue, or even street kid, would investigate the sudden presence of miraculous sigils, or just magic in general. 

She had been able to keep out of sight of the bats for a good portion of the year, until red robin had spotted her laying one of the sigils on the  _ one night  _ she had forgotten to lay her hiding spell. 

This led to the bats being on guard because of a ‘new player’ doing…. Something…. In gotham. She understood, really, but was annoyed at the stagnation of progress. At least her commissions kept her busy with her work as MDC, as well as her design course at Gotham University. 

The unlucky side of this situation was that she had a… fanclub on campus. Two, actually. One of them for her  _ Animale  _ persona, the other for her MDC persona. One of them was led by her seating partner in her business course. The  _ advanced  _ business course. They had bonded by being the only people in their early twenties in the class, both already running successful businesses. Neither  _ knew  _ what business the other was running, and Marinette was happy not to pry as long as she was able to keep her  _ fan club  _ from realizing that  _ MDC herself  _ was attending Gotham university. 

Today was one of the days she actually had class during the week. It was one of the classes she most looked forward to. Not because of the material  _ in  _ the class, but because of the person she sat next to. 

He had introduced himself as Tim. Her first impression of him, with the deep bags under his eyes and a cup of coffee in his hand, was of a fellow workaholic or insomniac. Few other people could manage to get the whole ‘done with life and perpetually tired’ look in only one night without sleep. Marinette understood this full well. After being randomly woken up in the middle of the night at least bi-weekly, coupled with patrols most nights, she was quite used to operating on as close to full capacity as one could without murdering someone for being  _ too….. anything.  _ Given, he only introduced himself after guzzling his coffee, wiping his mouth, and face planting on the desk with a groan. 

“That's a mood.” Marinette blurted out, not thinking about what she said. “Achjgjfs I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to offend or anything I’m such a disaster! I'm going to get expelled and blacklisted from…..”

“You’re fine.” The tired boy interrupted her frantic catastrophizing. “Most people tell me I’m a hazard to myself and society.”

“I get that a lot too….”

“Insomnia or workaholism?”

“Sadly, both. It means when I  _ can  _ sleep, I want to work.”

“I know, right? No-one understands the  _ pain….  _ How are you still looking even a modicum of awake?”

“That would be a secret,” Marinette winked, placing her chin on her hands. Realizing what she did, she blushed and placed her hands on her face, hiding from the boy and the world around her. The boy laughed. 

“If you ever feel like telling me, that would be a life-saver.”

“You have to reach friendship level six for that to happen.” Marinette said, slowly gaining confidence back after her previous blunder.

“Guess we’ll have to keep sitting next to each other then.”

“Suppose so.”

“I’m Tim.”

“Marinette.” And the rest was history… for  _ disaster  _ she was  _ not  _ supposed to get a crush on him, but oh well. Thus this class was her favorite, but also the most disastrous one ever. And she had that class today.  _ How would she do this…  _ what should she wear? Would wearing one of her own designs be seen as too impetuous?  _ No Marinette, Tim has seen you in vigilante clothing and in sweats and a t-shirt. Wearing nice clothing wouldn’t phase him. Unless…  _ Marinette rushed into action as soon as she stepped through the portal and into her apartment, borrowed from uncle Jagged.  _ “Gotham university, huh? I have a penthouse apartment in Gotham! It would be totally Rock and Roll if you live there, less money to pay in college, yeah?”  _ Marinette, as a frugal young adult was happy to accept. It meant she could use better fabric for commissions, and buy better coffee, her lifeblood. Speaking of coffee, after a two hour nap, she slogged over to the coffee machine on the counter, making two cups of coffee and adding an unholy amount of caffeine shots and various other… additives to help her exist throughout the day. She dumped the concoction into an insulated water bottle and changed into a blouse and a pair of skinny jeans. She realized she forgot cookies for Tikki, and her shoes. Scrambling to get what she needed for school, she ended up racing out the door ten minutes later, sprinting to reach the bus to the university, something she usually avoided doing because, well, Gotham was Gotham. On the bus, she had to fend of pickpockets, madmen and the usual sorts of people who enjoy preying on ‘defenseless’ people that seem to not be native to Gotham. 

Luckily, the bus chaos resulted in not being late, surprisingly, and being able to chat with Tim for a solid five minutes. Their usual sleep deprived conversations usually included topics like is cereal a soup, could coffee be injected in the bloodstream, could we really make pigs fly, is batman an alien who is trying to fit in with the humans and failing, (Tim’s idea. She swears) and several more… chaotic ideas. Suffice it to say, the rest of the class had started avoiding them after they began debating the ethicality of making school children learn how to do worksheets and paperwork. 

This was the regular environment of the two of them after class as well, until Tim suddenly groaned and slid his hand down his face, a tall man with a white streak in his hair, and lazarus pit residue, walking over to them. 

“So! You must be replacement’s girlfriend. He won’t shut up about you!”

“I know no-one named replacement. I think you have the wrong person.” Marinette sat back, slowly sipping her life-blood and glaring at the person who dared interrupt her precious Tim time.

“I call Tim here replacement. He replaced me as the… partner in our dad’s…. Karaoke duet tradition.” The man haltingly said. Marinette was so tired. 

“Yeah… the one with the grappling hooks and punching people.” Marinette’s eyes widened as she realized what she said. Tim’s eyes widened. She knew? Jason’s eyes widened. Tim told her?

\---

The next thing she knew, she was in the Wayne household, a bunch of buff men and one teenager with a katana sitting at a table with her as she stared them down unflinchingly. 

Bruce Wayne looked at her, hands crossed under his chin.

“You know.”

“Kinda hard not to.”

“How.” 

“How not? You are all very obvious.”

“All the people who have figured us out before without being told are Tim and you. So, no it’s not obvious.” marinette blue screened. This was an unexpected development. Thanks Tikki?

“So, I repeat. How did you figure it out?” Bruce raised his eyebrow.

“Ummm… wear patterns on shoes, times he missed class, amounts of coffee consumption and um… his haircut?” Marinette haltingly shared. The Batfamily sat back. This was even less evidence than Tim himself had come up with. 

“Out of curiosity, have you ever taken an IQ test?” The boy that had collected her and Tim piped up.

“No? They are quite expensive, and being an international student isn’t really good for money.” Marinette was quite confused about why exactly this question was being brought up. She wasn’t a genius student or anything. Sure, she was able to solve problems when no one else besides max was able too, and sure she was able to recognise people’s reactions to things sometimes before they were able to, and was able to spot Lila’s lies even before max… but she hadn’t caught hawkmoth for  _ four years  _ that was longer than  _ any  _ of the bat’s rogue gallery were able to leave Arkham for. Some of them were even similar to her villain!

“We would be willing to pay for it… If you want to take one, I understand if you don’t want to.” This time it was Bruce who spoke up.

“Why? Isn’t your IQ in the late hundreds?”

“Yes, but Tim’s is in the early two hundreds, and I wouldn’t be surprised if yours was comparable to his.”

“Pfft… yeah  _ no  _ I am nowhere  _ near  _ as smart as he is.” Tim, of course, was offended on her behalf.

“You figured out the bats with even less evidence then I had, and I grew up around the Waynes and Batman! Besides, who else is the one in our business courses running a successful business at our age? You!” The rest of the bats were notably shocked. It was rare that Tim got into an argument about something other than coffee and his favored cold cases this much. Marinette curled into a ball on the seat. She was… not good with praise, and this was  _ definitely praise.  _ Thus, she was bright red and hiding her face from… everyone.

“Well, that was unexpected.” the man she had now identified as… Red Hood? Spoke up, breaking the silence Tim had brought after his outburst. Tim blushed violently. He had forgotten he was with his family. Especially with his brothers. Who now had a large amount of teasing material about Marinette. Who he had a crush on. Shoot. 

\----

“So, what do you think, B?” 

“She’d be a good addition to the team.”

“No, about Tim dating her.” Bruce grunted and walked off, as good as a vote of approval as the emotionally constipated man would give. 

\----

Marinette flopped face first into her bed,  _ the place of existence where sleep evades her,  _ and screamed. 

“I can’t believe I let them know that I know that they are the Bats! Should I let them know I’m Animale? Or should I just let Tim know?”

“I think you should let him know! He is a good match for you, and a hero to boot!” Tikki piped up. 

“ _ I _ think he is rich and famous enough for your attention guardian.” Kalkii spoke, haughtiness oozing from them. 

“Thank you Kalkii,” Marinette giggled, the kwami’s comment breaking her from the beginning of her catastrophizing. “I suppose I’ll release the seal keeping the bats from figuring me out…” She had made her decision.

\-----

Marinette transformed, leaping out the window and onto the roof, the wind racing down the streets twirled around the wisps of hair flying out of her braid. Tonight, she donned the Cat and Horse Miraculous, one of her favored combinations. She looked out for the bats, hoping to catch red robin so she could mess with him a  _ little,  _ and then reveal herself. Afterall, she had to retain balance if the hope of any relationship in the future could be retained. Opening a portal, she walked through to a spot by one of Red Robin’s favored coffee spots. Sitting herself on the top of one of the nearby buildings, she closed her eyes and reached out her ears to the sounds of one Red Robin, or any trouble nearby. 

Suddenly, a hand touched her shoulder. Naturally, she squeaked, and turned to deck whoever decided to sneak up on a magically enhanced person was a good idea. This, of course resulted in him catching her fist and raising his eyebrow under his mask.

“That wasn’t very nice.” 

“Well, it isn’t safe to  _ not  _ punch someone who sneaks up on you, especially in Gotham.”

“Unfortunately.”

“I have a very important announcement for you.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll reveal myself to you… if you can catch me.” Animale turned and ran into the night.

\----

“So,” Tim sipped his coffee. “You’re Animale.” The two gotham vigilantes, currently in civvies, were sitting on the couch in Marinette’s Apartment.

“Yup.” 

“Wanna go out with me?” Tim blurted out. 

“Agdkufhlkjla” Marinette turned bright red. “Yes!” Naturally, this conversation turned to a munch of flustered date planning and spluttering. Luckily, both were flustered so Marinette didn’t have to feel as awkward as she usually did. 

“So, want to phrank the bats as Animale with me?”

“You read my mind.” Bolth smirked, ready to cause chaos in Gotham. 

  
  



End file.
